Sunburn! Review

Launch yourself and others into the sun in this unique puzzler.

Sunburn! is a odd little game in which players, after being stranded in space after their space ship is hit by a comet, must gather the remaining crew and make sure that they all plummet into a star and die. Although the subject matter is a bit depressing, the game play is tight and interesting and the injection of dark humor makes this puzzler one worth playing.

The Good

The pixel graphics are well done and manage not to be derivative, with bright interesting colors shaping cute characters. The music and sound effects are great. They really frame the dire yet humorous experience and really feel like an integral part of the game. The controls are fluid with players utilizing tilting and touch to jump and jet around. The control scheme is deceptively simple as later levels will require players to master their utilization as the jumps and jets become more frequent and difficult.

The Bad

The menus are a bit complicated. Instead of a simple continue option, there is "Launch" which starts the game at the first level, and "Sectors" which is a level select of sorts but it lacks visual indicators to let you know which level you left off on. Ironically, the pixel graphics can be considered a negative as well as a positive as the trend of indie games utilizing pixel styling is starting to feel cliched no matter how well done they are.

The Verdict

Sunburn! is a nifty game that is a great choice over the tired freemium fest that is the mainstay of the App Store. The puzzles have a ton of variety and I never really felt like I was slogging through the game just to beat it. It was fun to the end, and the witty and darkly humorous story added an atmosphere that so many other puzzle games lack.